As
New Mexico and Texas have been in drought the last several years collecting
acorns from wild tree populations has been tough. Trees have not produced
acorns or produce very few during seasons of drought. This year, to collect
Vasey Oak acorns necessitated traveling to the Texas Hill Country. We found
Vasey Oaks growing up the sides of dry arroyos. Outside of these arroyos the
surrounding land appeared to be desert or mesa. Acorns were found in abundance
on these trees.

Vasey
Oak (Quercus
pungens var. vaseyana) is a New Mexico native tree that can be found
growing in the area near Carlsbad, New Mexico. Vasey Oak grows as a tree to 25’
- 40’ tall and wide

or can sometimes form thickets.

Vasey Oak may be an
evergreen or semievergreen tree. It’s leaves are glossy green.

The bark of
Vasey Oak is unusual in that it is produced in scale-like vertical blocks.

Trees
That Please Nursery grows Vasey Oaks starting with collected acorns that are germinated and grown over winter in our greenhouse.

We are currently updating the Trees That Please
Nursery Website adding the ability to offer online sales. We will begin by
offering the Products of Soil Secrets including Earth Magic, TerraPro, Protein
Crumblies, and TTP Compost.

Trees That Please Nursery and the Arboretum Tome
use these products exclusively to feed all our trees, shrubs, perennials, and
house plants.

We will send out further updates as the Online Sales portion of our website becomes
functional.

We also hope to offer bare-root fruit trees and
bare-root oak trees as a seasonal online product to the nursery website.

During winter we
devote a large portion of Greenhouse #1 to native tree seed germination. We
travel the state and into Texas searching wild tree populations for seed.
Ideally we look for tree species growing in isolation so that hybridization is
minimized. We carefully collect, tag, preserve, and transport seed back to the
nursery for planting. In some cases we are unable to plant immediately so then
we refrigerate the seed until use. Depending upon seed size we then plant one
or two seeds per cell. Seed may take one to three months to germinate depending
upon variety.

The tray in the photo shows Vasey Oak tree seedlings about
one month after planting.

Seedlings spend the
winter months in the greenhouse then in spring we move them to the Arboretum
Tome for further growth and development. They usually spend two to four years
at the Arboretum where they are transferred first to one gallon containers then
five gallon containers and sometimes into 15 gallon containers. They then
return to the retail store at the 5 or 15 gallon container size and made
available for sale.

The Chisos Red Oak (Quercus gravesii) is New Mexico's only native red oak tree species. This oak can reach 30' - 35' tall and wide. It has a deep tap root and annual growth up to 4 feet. The Chisos Red Oak most commonly has red-maroon fall color but some trees produce yellow or orange foliage in autumn. The Chisos Red Oak retains its leaves through winter after fall color is lost. These chocolate brown leaves remain on the tree usually until spring growth resumes with new leaves. The Chisos Red Oak makes a great addition to your home or business landscape.

The photo above shows a Chisos Red Oak seedling weathering the first snow of the season in Los Lunas, NM!

Trees That Please Nursery can deliver and plant your Chisos Red Oak just contact the store for details!